Drylands Gender strategy released with a special focus on youth

The Dryland Systems Research Program of the CGIAR published recently their gender strategy with a strong Youth component.

The CGIAR has shown a strong support to the youth on many occasions, through post-doc programs, youth participation support at key events, capacity building opportunities and other activities. This strategy, at a research programme level, is bringing a strong strategic backbone to these types of initiatives. It stresses notably the need for more research and age disaggragated data, in order to get a clearer picture on where the youth stands in agricultural development.

It is an achievement for YPARD, the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development, as well. We were invited to the launching of the Dryland Systems Research Programme last May, in order to support the youth agenda and particularly provide insights on how this could concretely happen. Furthermore, youth regional focal points participated in the regional workshops in West and East Africa, and South Asia, with the objective of fine-tuning the agenda within their specific context. Finaly, we provided input to the new gender strategy, targeting women and youth.

As a partner, YPARD will help the DS CRP leverage the participation of Young Professionals in agricultural research for development (AR4D) in all 5 Target Regions. It will be about identifying current differences between men and women specific to the young generation, so that it can be addressed through the programme. Also, we will contribute to the Young Dryland Scientists program, which includes internships and post-doc fellowships for young researchers, and participate in local on-ground events and activities. ( see p. 44 of the strategy)

Through its committement within the GAP: the Gender in Agriculture Partnership, YPARD will bring a youth perspective between CGIAR gender specialists and multi-stakeholder programs around the world, from research on youth and women, to assessments, project implementation and engagement with policy makers at all levels.

The DS CRP Gender Strategy includes a strong M&E plan (p.51). The dissemination of the findings – the conclusions from the age-dissagregated data, particularly – will bring a set of evidences to support our message to policy-makers, development practitioners and researchers in a wide range of organizations, for stronger pro-youth commitment through their programs.

You can download the CGIAR Dryland Systems's Gender Strategy from YPARD e-library.

Special thanks to William Payne, former Director of the Dryland Systems CRP, Jennie Dey De Pryck, consultant in charge of the Strategy Drafting, and Harry Palmier, GFAR Senior officer and member of the Steering Committee of the DS CRP, for their outstanding youth support, as well as to all of the collaborators on the Strategy document.

Picture credit: Dany Marique - Oasis in the Libyan desert - Oasis dans le Désert de Libye.